Pear Shadow

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder and CEO of an intelligent relationship app, based in Denver, Colorado (USA) and Montréal, QC (Canada).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pear Shadow, and what were your goals?

We originally hired Pear Shadow to help us with our product expansion outside of North America, expanding our iOS and Android apps to new markets throughout Latin America and India.

SOLUTION

How did you select Pear Shadow and what were the deciding factors?

Over the last five years, we have worked with a number of developers – both in-house and outside contractors, to assist with frontend mobile app development.  During the pandemic, however, we had an increase in demand for our product, which required us to rapidly expand our development team.

After interviewing several local candidates, local contractors, and small to mid-sized development companies, outsourcing a number of test projects with less than desirable results, Pear Shadow’s name came up from a trusted developer that we had worked with in the past as a company that we should reach out to.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Meeting with Menil from Pear Shadow was both eye-opening and refreshing, as it was evident from our very first meeting that he and his team could have the experience we’d been searching for.  As we’re a relationship app, we like the idea of dating first to determine our compatibility before getting married (lots of puns there), which is why Menil mentioned taking on a smaller project as a “test” to make sure there was a good team fit!  

This was extremely important for us, as we knew that our project would be demanding, challenging at times, requiring an experienced team that could be nimble, adapting quickly to help our business remain relevant in a highly competitive industry.

After our first test project that focused on squashing bugs across our iOS and Android apps that popped up from a previous developer, with Pear Shadow delivering ahead of schedule and under budget, we were anxious to sign on for a longer term commitment.  

How many people from the Pear Shadow team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Hoping to expand our product to new markets outside of North America, we decided that our initial project would require a minimum team of 5 experienced developers: (2) iOS, (2) Android and (1) full-stack developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Initially, we signed on for a 90-day project to launch a new app (iOS and Android) outside of the US and Canada to a serve a growing demand for our products in new markets throughout Latin America and India.  Working daily with our CXO and CTO, communicating primarily through Slack and daily standups over Zoom, Pear Shadow immediately asserted themselves as our “go-to” development team capable of tackling a number of complex frontend and full-stack development tasks.  

These tasks included frontend development for iOS and Android, maintaining our apps with weekly product updates to improve app performance and squash bugs, and support our backend development team with full-stack development resources on an as-needed basis.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

What started as a 90-day project is still going strong today, nearly two years later, with our relationship expanding beyond mobile app development to also support our need to evolve and grow our web based business online.

What did you find most impressive or unique about Pear Shadow?

We’ve had an overall positive experience with Pear Shadow from day 1, with a team hungry to take on new and complex projects, eager to communicate with truly positive attitudes.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I can't say enough positive things about Pear Shadow's team, as they have been great to work with!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a startup that specialized in own product development in form of apps

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pear Shadow, and what were your goals?

We hired Pear Shadow for the development of two of our products since it out sourcing it turned out to be a far more reliable yet cost effective method for creating the apps. The goals were to have a dedicated IT team that can support the product start to finishing without hiring in-house developers/engineers for it

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

The deciding factor was Pear Shadow CEO's ability to provide business and market fit level advice on top of coding know how. He dedicated his time to discuss with us several features, go to market strategies, and ultimately which programming language will serve us short term and long term (especially cost wise). Furthermore, Pear Shadow supported all aspects of our product with their experience. A big added bonus was the entire team which was extremelly pleasant to work with and had 0 delays in the deliveries.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They designed the entire architecture (frontend, backend, apps, databases...) based on the initial discovery phase and the features agreed upon together. After the initial release there were four additional releases done with added features, with the latest being a full redesign of the app, changing the user clasification, functionality of the app and new flow for users.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

There were a total of 6 people working with us. Two mobile developers, one frontend developer, one backend developers, one DevOps, and periodically the CEO would step in to support the business side of things (fine tuning the pricing model, help select the hosting infrastructure, etc.)

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The product help digitalize the exchange of information via business cards and thus assisted over 200 businesses so far in reducing cost, prevent deforestation, and preserve the environment due to their usage of the app. Furthermore, the product assisted in over 50.000 trees being preserved in the local forests with the public sector taking special interest in joining the digitalization efforts with us.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The management style was open and frequent communication between us and the vendor, which was a rarity to find. All steps were explained on a extremely simplified level and they always kept us in the loop on their own without us having to inquire about it. Regular updates were present and the team provided us with fabulous explanation (both technical and non technical) which was used to create our sales pitches. Timelines were regularly met without any delays and reclamation on our part.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The relationship the team members have between them which makes every situation a remarkable experience. Moreover, their ability to understand and assist in other areas non tech related that helped us out several fold in the past. They are an absolute marvel to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

From our side, absolutely not.